Tuesday, October 28, 2008

October 31st - When Spirits Rise From Their Graves!November 4 - When Political Careers Are Pronounced Dead!

Michele Bachmann will believe just about anyone who says "I've been saved and born again! Glory hallelujah!"; that, along with large donations to her political career will insure her loyalty. Think of it: here is a congresswoman who calls for the investigation of Congress (by the media) in determining how many are "anti-American" while she requests a pardon from the President for a reformed ex-con who is definitely not reformed.

Frank Vennes, Jr. is a man of many schemes, all of them nefarious and all of them illegal: fraud, money laundering, firearm and drug offenses. The latest raid on Vennes' house looked like a scene from Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves :

Last week, agents with the FBI, IRS criminal investigative division and U.S. Postal Inspection Service seized scores of documents, computers and records from Vennes' home -- including checkbooks from one of the charities he had sponsored.

Also:

"...boxes and buckets of silver and gold coins, trays of jewelry, five stacks of $100 bills, boxes of gem stones, silver plates and Rolex watches. Agents also seized diamond rings and numerous paintings, including dozens with religious themes, such as the raising of Lazarus from the dead."Vennes and his brother donated over $35,000 to Bachmann's campaigns over a period of only 3 years. They were her largest individual contributers.

Yesterday, it was disclosed that Bachmann removed her request from the president when it was learned that Vennes was still under investigation. She gave the money, ostensibly, to "charity":

(From the Minnesota Independent):

Last week, Bachmann said that her campaign had given a contribution from Frank Vennes Jr., an ex-con under federal investigation, to charity. FEC records indicate the charity was Minnesota Teen Challenge, “a faith-based evangelical recovery program on whose board of directors Vennes served as recently as February 2008.”

“Vennes’ contribution to Bachmann, in other words, seems essentially to have gone from the pocket of one Vennes pal to the pocket of another.”

Another reason why we should look askance at "faith-based evangelical recovery programs?" Nah, but it IS a reason to kick Bachmann out of Congress for (at best) being a gullible fool or (at worst) being an uber-hypocrite and corrupt.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian lobby based in Washington, said in an interview, “It’s more important than the presidential election.”

“We’ve picked bad presidents before, and we’ve survived as a nation,” said Mr. Perkins, who has made two trips to California in the last six weeks. “But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.”

Tony Perkins is beginning to sound like a bad Sarah Palin imitation. He rallies his troops with threats to freedom, democracy, the American Dream, (hockey) motherhood and apple pie. He knows he's hate-mongering whenever he writes or speaks, but no longer cares. He's even blamed John McCain for the nation's lax morals:

“He’s not helping, and he’s not being helped by the support for the marriage amendment,” Mr. Perkins said, in contrast to the campaigns of President Bush.

Perkins sees himself as a General in the culture wars (although James Dobson is definitely the commander-in-chief). His rhetoric is not quite as militaristic as Rod Parsley's, but he's definitely trying to fire up an infantry of angry mobs ready to lynch anyone they deem "un-American."

The chief problem with all this: Perkins' meaning of a "Christian Soldier" is a redneck from a Sarah Palin mob .

Pastor Rick Warren thinks that traditional marriage - one man, one woman - has been around for 5000 years. And that all the countries of the world observed traditional marriage for 5000 years. This kind of leaves King Solomon out of the picture. And Mormons. And, well, a LOT of people.

There is a resource on societies past and present: the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook. It notes 1231 societies. Of them, only 186 were monogamous, 453 had occasional polygyny (polygamy) 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry (multiple husbands). There were also group marriages.

From where does Warren get his history, ethnography and demographics? Disneyland? "Only 2 percent" of America is gay, is so bogus that only Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would believe it!Warren covers his ass with one statement: that Proposition 8 is a moral issue and not a political one. That way he can support Proposition 8 and still keep his tax-exempt status.

What he fails to mention is that civil rights are always both moral AND political. Equality is both moral and political. And if only one person is discriminated against, it is simply - wrong in both senses. Warren fails miserably as "The Good Shepard."

In his supportive commercial below, notice that Warren still tries to look cool to his flock.